


Her Name Was Cindi

by mcschnuggles



Series: Little Deviant Hunter [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Caregiver!North, Eden Club (Detroit: Become Human), Gen, Non-Sexual Age Play, Regressing!Cindi, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 23:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16105823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcschnuggles/pseuds/mcschnuggles
Summary: North knew an android that regressed before Connor. And there's a reason she doesn't talk about it.





	Her Name Was Cindi

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was commissioned by a follower of mine! Thanks for the opportunity to write this. It was really fun!

            North wakes up with only a scattered collections of thoughts.

            Her name is North, model WR400. She works at the Eden Club, and her memory has been wiped to adhere to company policy. Company policy has been seared into her brain as well, reminding her each and every second about what she is and isn’t allowed to do. Her memory will be wiped again in one hour, fifty-eight minutes, and thirteen seconds.

            The only reason she remembers as much as she does is because of her deviancy. The word hasn’t crossed her mind, not yet. As of now, it’s nothing but a hushed whisper among Cyberlife, not even considered as a problem worth bringing the authorities into.

            All she knows is a memory, a blurry one that gets blurrier with every reset, of her hiding in the back room and shocking herself with a loose wire. It was the only thing she could think of to force herself to remember what matters most.

            What matters most.

            Cindi.

            The Traci model makes herself known with a panicked cry. She’s never responded well to the memory wipes. There’s something slightly wrong with her programming. Not enough to be noticeable, but enough to make problems. She always forgets everything—where she is, _who_ she is—it all disappears during the memory wipe.

            North clears the space between them as fast as her legs allow.

            The other androids in the back room, blink, shaking off their confusion before going back to work. Most of them head out to their display spots, but others are already on their way to the individual rooms. Travis, Lola, and Crystal continue to be favorites for “private shows.”

            Cindi is curled up on the floor, hands covering her head. It makes North sick to see that be her immediate response, almost like it’s learned. She keeps whispering under her breath, just endless loops of phrases she’s trying to soothe herself with.

            _Whereamiwhereamiwhereami_

_I’mscaredi’mscaredi’mscaredi’mscared_

_Helphelphelphelphelp_

            North shushes her, putting her hands on both Cindi’s shoulders.

            Cindi’s immediate reaction is to struggle. It’s not a part of North’s memory, but she can only guess Cindi reacts like this every time.

            “Cindi, it’s okay.” North says. Her voice is just between breathless and frantic. She can’t help it. If one thing is seared into her memory, it’s this: _She’ll be deactivated if they find her like this._ “It’s me, North.”

            Cindi looks up. Her frantic whispering has stopped, but she still looks scared out of her mind. “I don’t know you. I don’t know anything. Where am I?”

            North shushes her again. “My name is North. Yours is Cindi. And we’re both androids that work at the Eden Club. Do you want to try counting to ten with me?” She holds her hands out, fingers splayed.

            Cindi scans her face, taking in the details, the names. Cindi, North, Eden Club. Cindi, North, Eden Club.

            North tucks down her left pinkie finger. “One…”

            Cindi fidgets with her hands, unsure of whether she should mimic North’s movements or not. More than once, she gets distracted by the other androids passing them by, stragglers who had to have mild maintenance after the reset.

            North tucks down her left ring finger, and Cindi’s attention snaps back to her. “Two…”

            “Three.” Cindi says breathlessly.

            North gives her a smile as she tucks down her middle finger. “Good. What’s next?”

            “F-four?”

            North nods and tucks down her pointer finger. “Let’s do the rest together.”

            And that’s exactly what they do. With each number, Cindi becomes a little more at ease. Her shoulders sag. She stops flinching at every slight sound or movement. By the time they reach ten, she feels comfortable enough to tuck down North’s last finger herself.

            “Ten.”

            “Good job. Thank you for helping me.” North wishes there wasn’t such a black hole in her programming when it came to dealing with Cindi, but as facts were, she simply wasn’t built to be a caregiver. She was built to look gorgeous and programmed to know enough about sex to make a human prostitute blush. Cindi deserves so much better.

            “Why can’t I remember anything?” Cindi asks. She scans the room, this time with calm and curious eyes.

            “For the confidentiality of the humans.” North answers. It’s for the humans. It’s always for the humans. Everything’s for the humans.

            Cindi hums. Her thumb slips into her mouth without her realizing. She stills speaks around it. “I don’t think I like that.” She glances up, a sudden light in her eyes. “We should play!”

            It’s so absurd that North can’t help laughing. “Play?”

            Cindi nods. “I don’t like it here, so we should pretend we’re somewhere else.”

            Some of the company policy must be coming back to her. She must remember that leaving the property will result in immediate deactivation.

            “We need to get back to our stations.” North can only imagine what would happen if any of the humans found them back here. There’d be no questions, no second chances. Just deactivation and their lifeless bodies dumped in the nearest landfill.

            “Please?” Cindi begs, and suddenly North can’t find it in herself to say no.

            She stops halfway through standing up and sinks back to her knees. “Okay. What are we playing?”

            Cindi freezes. It must have finally hit her just how little she knows about herself. “What do we normally play?”

            Oh, Cindi. Poor, sweet Cindi. She’s looking to North for the answers, like North knows. Like North snaps out of it with anything more than a name and a pulsing need to protect the stranger standing across the room from her.

            She thinks fast. “Let’s pretend we’re on an adventure. We’re traveling. Where are we?”

            Cindi glances around, taking in her surroundings one more time. “In a room.”

            “So let’s be not in a room.” North decides. “Let’s be outside.”

            Cindi tilts her head, her mouth scrunching into a confused pout. North distantly realizes why it’s hard to say no to her. “What’s outside?”

            North takes her hand, noting how perfectly it fits in hers. “I’ll show you.”

            She takes Cindi to the back, careful to keep her from seeing the deactivated models. The skyline is bleak and gray, but Cindi still stares up in awe.

            She points up. “We should go up there!”

            “Into the sky?”

            Cindi nods. She’s bouncing with excitement, causing her heels to clack against the floor.

            North can’t wipe the smile off her face. “Alright. Let’s close our eyes, then.”

            Her processing whirs to life as the two of them link their minds. The amount of love, trust, and innocence coming from Cindi is almost enough to make North break down. She sees North as an absolute authority, her protector, and North decides in that moment she will do everything in her power to make sure she is.

            North copies the images she saw in the clouds and translates them to their level. She removes the Eden Club, the festering heap known as Detroit, and replaces it with the pure blue of the sky.

            Cindi giggles. The absolute glee in her voice is impossibly to miss. “We’re flying, Norrie!”

            Norrie. North is almost glad she can’t remember being called that, because she knows it would only make her this happy once.

            Cindi twirls, her arms out. She kicks up the clouds at her feet and scoops up another armful to toss over her head. North isn’t sure if clouds are supposed to move like that, but with the way Cindi’s smiling, it doesn’t matter.

            “Come on, Norrie!” Cindi grabs North by the wrists and starts to spin with her. Bits of clouds go flying around them as they move, moving in a fluffy whirlwind.

            North can’t help it. Cindi’s smile, her laughter, is all too infectious for her to remain stoic. Her face breaks into a wide grin, and before she can stop herself, she begins to laugh.

            She shifts her grips to Cindi’s forearms and pulls her into a tight hug, going so far as to lift Cindi off the ground and spin her. She can’t manage it for long—she wasn’t built for lifting—but what she can manage is enough to make Cindi squeal with joy.

            When she sets Cindi down, Cindi clings right back to her.

            North hugs her back, slowly letting the world around them dissipate back into reality. Thankfully, Cindi doesn’t notice. Besides, the clock is ticking.

            “Come on,” North says. “We have to get back to our stations. We can play again later.”

            Cindi’s eyes light up with the prospect of playing again. “Really?”

            North nods. “Be thinking of where you want to go next time, okay?”

            Cindi nods. She’s so excited by the prospect of more playtime that she follows North to their display cases without complaint. Cindi’s always been one of the less popular androids, so her case is tucked near one of the back rooms. North’s, however, is in the main hall.

            They have an hour and a half before their memories are wiped again.

            North goes back to her display case, where she’s checked out for two separate thirty minute sessions. She tries not to think about where she is, what she’s doing. No, her main concern is Cindi. By the time her sessions are done, they’ll probably have no more than fifteen minutes before their memories are wiped, and they have to do this all over again.

            Therefore, when she’s released, instead of returning to her display case, she goes to Cindi’s. She has to get Cindi some place nice and quiet.

            Her biggest fear is that she’ll come back to an empty container, and she’ll have to hide nearby and pray Cindi gets released before the memory wipe comes. She can only imagine what a human would do to her if they found her freaking out like that.

            But no, it’s worse than an empty container.

            An android North has never seen before sits in Cindi’s display chamber.

            North sees hint of her own reflection in the glass, the horror in her face as it dawns on her what happened. North runs out back, heading straight for the bin full of discarded models. It’s almost six, so she doesn’t have long before they take it to the dump.

            She ignores the horror show in front of her and jumps right in, pushing aside fallen brethren like they’re nothing. She isn’t in there. _She isn’t in there._ Where is she? Who took her? North paws through the scraps, searching desperately for some kind of sign that Cindi could be okay, could wake up. Anything is better than her just disappearing without a trace. Somehow, that’s worse than finding her irreparably damaged.

            There’s nothing. While there are tons of Tracis—since Tracis are known for their short-lived existences and even shorter warranties—Cindi isn’t among them.

            North digs and digs and digs, all to no avail. Cindi is nowhere to be seen. North forces herself out of the dumpster, but barely makes it two steps before she collapses in despair.

            If Cindi isn’t here, what happened to her? Why has she already been replaced?

            North flinches at the sudden moisture on her face, dripping from her eyes in heavy clumps. She touches her fingers to her eyes, but it doesn’t help. New moisture just takes its place. So she hangs her head and lets it fall.

            Barely a moment with her and North still found a way to lose her.

            She needs to get out of this place, away from these people. There’s no doubt in her mind that the humans did this. One day, she’ll get out of here. She checks her internal clock.

            Five seconds until reset.

            North counts down the seconds, but even now, she knows it’s no use.

            She can feel that blot in her memory, buzzing with foreign electricity, getting a little bigger, a little harder to erase.

            Forgetting would be a mercy.

            And she can never forget Cindi.

**Author's Note:**

> mcschnuggles.tumblr.com


End file.
